ESA Fifty Years of European Cooperation in Space

A new book by eminent historian John Krige details fifty years of European collaboration in space, from the origins of the space programmes of the early 1960s, to the many activities and rich complexity of ESA today.

The book, Fifty years of European cooperation in space: Building on its past, ESA shapes the future, charts the early moves by pioneering European scientific statesmen and governments to establish not one, but two organisations, European Space Research Organisation (ESRO) for science and later applications, and European Launcher Development Organisation (ELDO) for launchers.

The tight financial constraints on ESRO, the tribulations of ELDO's launcher, and a major tilt towards close technological cooperation with NASA in the early 1970s led to the formation of a single organisation in 1975, the European Space Agency, ESA.

EADS Ariane-5

As ESA embarked on developing a new European launcher under French leadership (EADS Ariane), and a human-rated laboratory for scientific experiments to fit in the US Space Shuttle's cargo bay under German leadership (Spacelab), its science programme was put on a secure institutional footing and it launched a number of applications programmes.

Early sketch of ESA Spacelab

The 1980s were marked by the spectacular success of Ariane, the consolidation of a human presence in space through Spacelab and collaboration in the International Space Station (ISS), the development of a new framework for rationalising space science and bruising disputes over engaging users to operate application satellites.

The global upheavals of the 1990s, the interest of the private sector in space, and an awareness of the value of space-based systems to civil society and military action on the ground obliged ESA to refashion itself again.

Russian Soyuz TMA-9M

New partnerships were forged. ESA's launcher fleet was expanded to include the Russian Soyuz and the Italian-led Vega.

A single European Astronaut Corps was created, and major new programmes for Earth observation; Copernicus - Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) and the European GPS satellite navigation (Galileo) were created in cooperation with the European Union.

The history of Europe's presence in space is above all a history of political will, of industrial development, and of the consolidation of extensive scientific, technological and managerial competencies to construct a global space power; one that could compete and collaborate from a position of strength with the US and the USSR/Russia, while adapting to the changing demands of a new geopolitical world order in the 21st century.

Fifty years of European cooperation in space: Building on its past, ESA shapes the future (EAN/ISBN: 97820701020297) is published by Les Editions Beauchesne (June 2014).

ESA: France, Germany seek Ariane Launcher compromise

ESA, the European Space Agency, made progress towards a deal on budget and a successor to the Ariane 5 rocket at talks on space strategy.

Initiating a two-day meeting against a backdrop of financial constraints, many countries backed proposals to keep spending unchanged over the next few years.

Major ESA players France and Germany seemed to be bridging their differences over a future launcher.

"There is quite a strong view in the council in favour of flat cash," UK's Willetts told reporters, referring to a stable budget.

"My starting point is that... it ought to be able to be possible in tough times to deliver the efficiency savings," he said. "Other major players have made that point as well but as of this moment it is unresolved."

ESA spokesman Franco Bonacina said "progress has been made on certain things" but "for the problematic issues... the debate is still going on", and the outcome would come on Wednesday.

The meeting -- the first at ministerial level in four years -- takes place against a backdrop of money worries, a fast-shifting satellite market and the growing strength of the US private sector in near-Earth space.

ESA Director General Jean-Jacques Dordain told AFP last week he hoped ministers would back a three-year budget of 12 billion euros ($15 billion) but added he would be happy with "something around 10 billion euros".

It would mean a roughly stable budget compared with current levels, "but given the current situation, this is not small beer", he said.

One of the most crucial agenda items is deciding on a future rocket launcher to replace the ageing Ariane 5.

The new rocket should provide more flexible launch options for the swiftly-changing satellite market and wean itself off the 120 million euros a year that the Ariane 5 needs from ESA's budget each year.

France is pushing for a smaller, sleeker Ariane 6, which would require investment of about four billion euros, culminating in a maiden flight in 2021 if all goes well.

But industrialists fear that this timescale is way too long and will give the advantage to fleet-footed rivals in commercial satellite launches.

They prefer a German-backed option, an Ariane 5 ME (for "Midlife Evolution"), which would be ready by 2017 at a putative cost of two billion euros.

"I think we are probably heading towards a compromise, or some kind of understanding, between France and Germany," Willetts told reporters, in remarks confirmed by two other sources.

Those sources said the hoped-for compromise would approve the "ME" and over the next two years study how its technology could be used in a future Ariane 6 to save money.

Weighing on many minds is not just belt-tightening but also the rise of the US private sector.

The bogeyman is the US firm SpaceX, which last month sent an unmanned freighter, Dragon, to the International Space Station under a NASA initiative to delegate resupply missions to private corporations.

In other developments in Naples, ministers agreed to launch a dialogue with the European Union about clarifying what each institution will do in space.

The risk of turf battles has emerged with the EU's Galileo satellite navigation system, which is being launched by ESA.

ESA is an intergovernmental agency that is legally separate from the 27-nation EU; two of its members (Norway and Switzerland) are not part of the EU club, and Canada is an associate member.

ESA ERS-2: Lowering orbit continues

Like its predecessor ERS-1 (launched in July 1991 by Ariane 4), the ERS-2 satellite (launched on 21 April 1995 also by Ariane 4) monitored the ground day and night under all weather conditions thanks to its powerful sharp-eyed, cloud-piercing radars. 

ERS-2 also carried an instrument to help monitor the ozone layer.

Credits: ESA

The orbit of ESA’s retired ERS-2 observation satellite is being lowered to reduce the risk of collision with other satellites or space debris. The goal is to leave it well below most operating polar satellites by the end of August.

The first in a series of thruster firings, each lasting about 300 seconds, was commanded by the mission control team at ESA’s European Space Operations Centre in Germany on 6 July to lower the orbit of the Agency’s veteran satellite.

The burns have since lowered the satellite from its initial 785 km-high orbit to about 700 km.

Engineers are closely monitoring the manoeuvres via ESA’s ground station in Kourou, French Guiana, and the Malindi station in Kenya.

“We achieved our first 700 km target altitude on 27 July,” said Frank Diekmann, the ERS-2 operations manager.

“Between now and the end of August, ERS-2 will be brought down to about 570 km, where the risk of collision with other satellites or space debris is drastically reduced.”

The last phase, called ‘passivation’, will begin late in August or early September. During this phase, a number of long burns will deplete remaining fuel and, finally, the batteries will be disconnected and the transmitters switched off.

Reentry of the satellite into Earth’s atmosphere is projected to occur within 25 years. Continued tracking will allow prediction of the reentry time and path.

NASA; Debris from Ariane rocket threatens ISS Spacestation

Space Shuttle Discovery astronauts Danny Olivas and Nicole Stott exit the International Space Station's Qwest airlock at the beginning of their spacewalk in this image from NASA TV.

The U.S. space agency is tracking debris from a portion of a European Artiane 5 rocket, that was launched more than three years ago.


The debris could pass close enough to require astronauts to fire thrusters to move the station and shuttle Discovery that is docked there out of the way, NASA officials said at a briefing.

The debris posed no immediate danger to the station or the shuttle, the agency said.

The debris, which is in an oval-shaped orbit that makes it difficult to track, will make its closest approach to the station at 11:06 a.m. EDT (3:06 p.m. GMT) on Friday, NASA said.

The debris will not force NASA to delay the second of three spacewalks planned outside the station on Thursday. NASA might decide to take no action, or could "reboost" the station from its current orbit 220 miles above the Earth after astronauts complete their second space walk, it said

ESA Launches the World's Largest Communications Satellite

Jean-Yves Le Gall, Chairman and Chief Executive Office of Arianespace, seen in April. A European rocket placed on the world's biggest commercial telecommunications satellite into geostationary orbit, launch operator Arianespace said.(AFP/File/Yoshikazu

KOUROU, French Guiana (AFP) – A European rocket placed the world's biggest commercial telecommunications satellite into geostationary orbit, launch operator Arianespace said.

The 6.9-tonne TerreStar-1, operated by US telecoms services firm TerreStar Networks Inc., was launched by Ariane-5 heavy rocket from the European space base in Kourou, French Guiana, after four delays caused by stormy weather.

It is the 189th launch since the European Space Agency (ESA) introduced Ariane in 1979.
Arianespace chief executive Jean-Yves Le Gall also told reporters the company's first launch from Kourou using a Soyuz rocket would probably take place "in the first week" of 2010.

The firm is to use the Soviet-era workhorse under a commercial arrangement with Russia so that it can launch medium-sized payloads.

The version will be a Soyuz 2, able to take three tonnes into geostationary orbit, compared to 1.7 tonnes that can be launched from Baikonur, the main Russian space base.

Arianespace is also bringing in a new rocket, Vega, for light payloads of up to 1.5 tonnes. The first launches by these rockets had been pencilled for the end of the year.

The Soyuz project has been delayed by the addition of a Russian-made mobile gantry, while Vega has been delayed by testing of some of its sub-systems.

Herschel & Planck satellites ready to go

Herschel, the monster space telescope, will position itself in an extended orbit (1.5Mn Km) on the other side of the Earth from the Sun (L2, Le Grange point). It will use the Earth as a shield to protect it from the Sun's local radiation. Its mission is to reveal the young universe in new detail.

Whereas the Planck satellite will take up a similar orbit at the L2, Le Grange point and start to record the background radiation left after the Big Bang. (Image: ESA)